BENGALURU: Bowing to pressure from members of the Kalahally Second Phase BDA Flats Association to call off his indefinite strike on health grounds, senior citizen R Muralidharan finally broke his fast on Sunday evening. Many neighbours sat on a dharna on Sunday to express solidarity with Muralidharan.
Nine defaulting families have paid their dues and Rs 85,000 has been collected so far. Two more families promised to pay upto Rs 45,000 in a day or two.
The 65-year-old was on an indefinite hunger strike since March 16 to force 21 defaulters out of 158 families residing in these flats to pay their unpaid water bills of Rs 2.69 lakh. The same bills had soared up to Rs 11.61 lakh due to levy of penalty by the Water Board.
“Two of those who have paid the full money while the remaining have made part payment. In the case of one family, the house owner has paid their bills from the house advance money deposited,” Muralidharan said.
“I think we will end up collecting Rs 1.31 lakh which is a good sum. This indefinite protest really helped me achieve that,” the senior citizen said.
A list of 12 defaulters who have dues pending for the last 40 months has been displayed on a banner and it has also been put up on the apartment premises.
“The important aspect is that the residents have collectively taken a decision that those who end up on the defaulters list will have to pay the entire penalty amount of Rs 11.61 lakh,” he added.